CMA Articles

America chose to stay in the kitchen in 2015. Cookware shipments to retailers were up almost 7 percent over 2014 while bakeware was up almost 16 percent. While some retailers probably increased their inventory levels, they generally don’t order from producers without parallel consumer sales. The conclusion is that consumers bought more cookware and bakeware during the just-past year. What accounts for this increase? A few thoughts: Lower energy costs. Prices for gasoline and other energy products such as natural gas plummeted...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 8:46 pm in General | Comments Off on The Benefits of Purchasing Certified Cookware?

The CMA supports the NSF Home Production Certification program and urges manufacturers and retailers to support it as well. The following is an interesting article about why consumers should care about certified cookware. With so many different products out on the market today, how do you know which product is the best choice to buy? Made in America. Outperforms the leading brand. Can be used on all cooking surfaces. More energy efficient. Green Product. Faster Cooktime. These are only a few of the millions of claims cookware products make...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 2:57 pm in General | Comments Off on Reposting one of our Favorite Holiday Posts

Don’t Freak Out Over the Holidays Originally authored in 2009, the below advice is still relevant today. Our best wishes to you for a great holiday. Thanksgiving always opens up with numerous calls and emails from folks fretting about their cookware and their cooking. Having the family table enlarged during the holidays is key stresser for many cooks. Will there be enough food to go around? Will this strange recipe that I cook only once every year work out? Will the turkey be done? Our advice is to relax. (And I remind myself of that...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 3:12 pm in General | Comments Off on It’s Nearly Spring…Off to the Trade Show Whirl

For the world of cookware and bakeware, the new year brings trade shows. These shows, which date from the middle ages, bring together buyers and sellers and suppliers to the housewares industry. Vendors erect booths (as they are called in the U.S.) or stands (the European designation) and spend several days in hopes of enticing retail buyers to place an order for products. A lot of hard work and thought go into a productive show, whether one is a buyer or a seller. In today’s Internet savvy world, it would seem like a waste of time...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 3:03 pm in General | Comments Off on So what about Sous-vide Cooking?

A consumer recently wrote regarding the preparation of foods using the sous -vide method. Literally French for “without air”, sous-vide is a method of cooking foods at lower than normal temperatures in water for lengthy periods of time using plastic pouches from which most or all the air has been removed. Essentially the even heating of the water bath is transmitted to the food allowing it to retain juices and flavor that could be lost in cooking at higher temperatures. Sous-vide requires a precisely controlled temperature water...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 1:37 am in General | Comments Off on Five Things to NOT Believe about Cookware and Bakeware

Ah, the web. Source of so much knowledge and so much miss-information. Herewith we bring to you things to NOT believe when you read them on the web, no matter how authoritative they may seem: PTFE or Teflon has been “phased out”, “banned” or “unavailable” after such and such a date. Wrong wrong wrong…. PTFE is the active food release ingredient in many nonstick coatings, including Teflon, a registered trademark of Du Pont. Self-identified environmental columnists/bloggers confuse PTFE with...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 6:19 pm in General | Comments Off on A Reprint of One of Our Favorite Holiday Posts

Don’t Freak Out Over the Holidays Originally authored in 2009, the below advice is still relevant today. Our best wishes to you for a great holiday. Thanksgiving always opens up with numerous calls and emails from folks fretting about their cookware and their cooking. Having the family table enlarged during the holidays is key stresser for many cooks. Will there be enough food to go around? Will this strange recipe that I cook only once every year work out? Will the turkey be done? Our advice is to relax. (And I remind myself of that...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 7:46 pm in General | Comments Off on Surviving a Hurricane and Eating well!

Natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy challenge the cook. Life without electricity is not fun, especially if you have large quantities of foods in freezers, and have an electric cooktop and/or oven. Prior to losing electricity, arrange food in freezers so that meats are on the bottom and other items are on the top. Most modern freezers can keep food below 40 degrees for a couple of days (less if it is hot weather). Experts say that if food has ice crystals in it, it can be re-frozen, but meats that have reached 40 degrees should be...

Smooth glass cook tops are becoming popular. The have a sleek look. Food spills don’t have to be excavated from a drip pan or from around a gas burner port. Many consumers are very happy with their choice. However, there are disadvantages to their use. A standard gas cooking surface makes noise when the gas is on. An old-fashioned electric stove eye, when it is on high, glows with enough intensity to get one’s attention. The new glass cook tops however are silent and even though they may glow red through the cook top’s...

Posted by Penny Rosema on 7:34 pm in General | Comments Off on CMA’s New Cookware and Bakeware Finder is Out!

The CMA now has an app for the iPhone and iPad which is designed to help consumers find the right cookware and bakeware for the foods they want to cook and how they want them cooked. The free app is available from the iTunes store and is downloadable for both iPhones or iPads. Consumers simply select the food they want to cook, choose from top of stove or inside the oven, and their preferred cooking method. The user is then prompted for any preferences they may have. The database maintained by CMA members then shows consumers a variety of...